Curmudgeonry

Comments: The Joy of Cooking

With each spring the sign at the local feed-seed store announces the availability of baby chicks. For the last several years, Mrs. Spud has wanted to get a few, but we just have not been at the point of being able to "confidently" arrange housing. We kept chickens in the last two farms we owned so we do have an idea of what's involved.

It looks like this will be another spring of no chickens, again. I've not tried the taste test between brown and white eggs, though I can tell a difference between fresh and somewhat-stale eggs. With better feed (i.e. veg scraps) the yolks on the home-grown eggs stand up better too. They're not very difficult to keep if you have some space in the back yard. You should be able to find a few good books to give you an idea of what you need to do to keep chickens if you're so inclined.

Did you get any inspiration on curry dishes to try and cook yourself whilst visiting Brittania?

Get this- I had cold (brown) eggs that needed to be room temp, so I ran a bowl of hot water and let them soak for about fifteen minutes. When I was ready to put them in the cake I was making, I cracked the first one and it was significantly easier to crack. It was the same for the other three. So, while I can't say anything about taste, it seems that the soak did weaken the shell structure somewhat.

snort. I can't believe I just wrote all that out like a real live lab experiment...

The color of the eggs has more to do with the breed/type of chicken. There is a breed from South America that will give colored eggs (soft pastels). The shell hardness and taste are related to what the bird is fed.